Motive Gear F880325 Fits Ford 8in Ring & Pinion 3.25 Ratio Ring And Pinion, Perf on 2040-parts.com

New Mercedes A45 AMG has 105 years of 4WD on its side

With the new Mercedes A45 AMG on the horizon – complete with 4WD – Mercedes chart the history of all wheel drive on their vehicles. We tend to think of 4WD road cars as a modern innovation, and certainly very few 4WD road cars hit the road in a mainstream way much before the 1980s (the Jensen FF was hardly mainstream before someone points out that was in the 1960s). But the history of 4WD goes back, certainly in the case of Mercedes, a surprising 105 years when Daimler built the Dernburg-Wagen, a 4WD vehicle that not only got all-wheel drive but all wheel steering too.

Volvo XC Coupe concept (2014) first official pictures

By Ollie Kew First Official Pictures 08 January 2014 09:00 This is the Volvo XC Coupe concept, revealed in full after teaser sketches were shown late last year. It’s 'the next chapter in the Volvo design story', according to the Swedish automaker and it's new design boss, Thomas Ingenlath. The rakish SUV will take centre stage for Volvo at the Detroit motor show later in January 2014.

One Lap of the Web: The Markchurian Candidate

-- When does a cartoonist become a short-track racer? When he's Bob Englehart of the Hartford Courant, and he writes a book about his childhood in and around Indiana, a childhood spent fixated on oval racers. Englehart, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for his political cartooning, explores why America's youth are willing to risk their lives to drive in circles -- and why he himself is so addicted to it.